Snow Days
Dave Faust
Snow Days
Publication: The Lookout
Date: February 16, 2003
Column: First Look
Category: Sunday School; Rest; Patience; Interruptions
Five inches of snow fell the other night, enough to disrupt the morning rush hour and close local schools. By mid-February, our readers in frosty regions like Minnesota and Ontario greet a few inches of snow with a matter-of-fact shrug, while children in sunny Florida and Arizona probably wish they could have a few days off for sleeping and sledding.
In a hilly mid-American city like Cincinnati, however, snow days are big events. Weather bulletins dominate the airwaves. Children eagerly tune in to local TV and radio stations to find out if their schools will be closed. Churches and other organizations cancel events, postpone meetings, reschedule ballgames, and send workers home early.
Funny thing. A lot of grownups seem just as eager for a snow day as the children are. Of course, not all adults welcome the snowflakes. Not the highway maintenance worker who has to clear away the drifts. Not the teacher who has an important exam to give. Not the police officer, fire fighter, truck driver, or utility worker who has to be outdoors navigating dangerous highways during the storms. But many seem to greet snow days with a quiet sigh of relief. For them, a snow day means an extra hour or two of sleep, time to catch up on some overdue projects at home, or the chance to read a good book or watch a video they've been wanting to see.
I suspect snow days have something to teach us about patience, about handling interruptions, and about the relative unimportance of many of the things we worry about. Eventually the snow will melt and life will return to normal. The postponed meeting will be rescheduled, the ballgame will be played, and somehow the work will get done.
Maybe everyone could use a snow day now and then—or at least a little more space in schedules so hectic it takes a blizzard to slow us down.
I should ponder this in more depth, but I really need to clear the snow out of my driveway. Now, where did I put that shovel?
This column first appeared in The Lookout on Feb 16, 2003.
Small Talk
Scrolling through “breaking news” on my cell phone the other day, a story caught my eye about a family in California who, while remodeling their bathroom, saw a note written inside the wall from a previous homeowner. The note said in part, “We remodeled this bathroom Summer 1995. If you are reading this, that means you’re remodeling the bathroom again. What’s wrong with the way we did it?”
So That
One of our church’s elders often points out the importance of the phrase “so that.” Those two little words can keep business meetings from drifting into aimless meandering. They compel the group to ask, “What is our objective? What are we trying to accomplish?” When church leaders meet, even to talk about minor matters, our purpose should be clear. We gather together to pursue noble goals: “*so that* God will be glorified, *so that* the gospel will be preached, *so that* personal relationships will deepen, *so that* families will be strengthened, *so that* God’s truth will be proclaimed and his love will be expressed.”